The present disclosure relates to classroom configurations and furniture and more specifically to a furniture system that can be reconfigured in many different ways to foster interaction, sharing and cooperative learning as well as small group discussions.
Traditional classrooms have been designed to focus attention on one person, a teacher or instructor, typically located at the front of the classroom. Here, the idea has been to configure classrooms based on the premise that instructors teach and students learn and, while there may be some communication between instructors and individual students during teaching sessions (e.g., questions and answers, etc.), small group discussions were to occur outside the normal teaching session hours and communications from students during a teaching session were to flow through the instructor to other students.
To concentrate student attention on an instructor, instructor focused classrooms are typically equipped with a large blackboard or whiteboard along a front wall of a classroom space with large numbers of student chair/desk combinations or chair/table combinations arranged in rows and columns throughout the remainder of the space to orient students to face the instructor's whiteboard or the like. In some cases a lectern may be provided between the instructor's whiteboard and the students to support a teacher's presentation materials with the teacher generally in front of the students during a presentation.
In some cases chair/table combinations include tables or table and chair combinations that are permanently secured in place within a classroom. Permanently secured tables/chairs ensure an orderly appearance and also reduce the amount of noise from moving furniture during class sessions. In other cases tables and chairs are free standing and can be moved around within a classroom to be rearranged.
In at least some cases it has been recognized that in a classroom, in addition to a primary instructor, many students bring experiences, tools, knowledge and other resources to the classroom that can be shared with others to enhance the learning experience. Additional student experiences are particularly prevalent at the college level and above where many students have unique practical work and/or life experiences that relate to classroom topics from which all students and instructors can benefit.
While some students are comfortable sharing their experiences and thoughts in large classroom settings, others are not and instead prefer to share their experiences and thoughts in smaller groups. For instance, some students may simply be shy and not want to discuss their thoughts in front of a large group of peers. For this reason many education institutions have developed curriculum whereby large classroom groups are routinely broken into smaller groups (e.g., 2-5 students) to facilitate small group discussions or to work on small group projects or problems so that students that prefer to share in smaller groups have an opportunity to more fully participate in activities. In many cases after topics have been discussed in small groups, those small groups are then called on to share their thoughts and experiences with a larger group.
One way to present small group thoughts to a larger group is to have a representative of each small group present to the larger group. In some cases small group representatives may be called on to present thoughts via a whiteboard at the front of a classroom. While presentation via a large whiteboard works well for some students, again, others may be shy or self conscious about their hand writing and may therefore be uncomfortable being the representative for their small group.
In addition to being used for large group and small group activities, classrooms are often used for dyadic (i.e., one on one) or individual activities. For instance, during testing, students often work individually to complete their work. As another instance, when a lecture or small group activities are completed prior to the end of a class period, the remaining time may be used individually to get a head start on homework. As one other instance, after lecture and small group activities are completed, a teacher may hold dyadic conferences with students at a teacher's desk while other students work at their desks.
While some teachers like using a lectern to support and organize teaching materials, others like to move around in a classroom during a session to maintain student interest and to assume different vantage points. For instance, many teachers get right up in front of students at times without any lectern or table between the teachers and the students to more personally engage students in the materials being presented. At other times, after information has been presented via a large whiteboard or the like at the front of a classroom, a teacher may opt to stand off to the side of the whiteboard while discussing whiteboard information so that students can better view the information with minimal distraction from the teacher.
Thus, many large classroom spaces are used to facilitate many different types of activities during a class period. Various tools have been developed to help students and teachers work more effectively in their classroom activities. For instance, many classrooms are now equipped with moving tables and chairs that can easily be rearranged to best facilitate a teacher centric large group lecture, small group activities, dyadic activities and even individual activities. In addition, portable easels that support whiteboards have been developed that can be used by small groups to memorialize their thoughts to be shared with a large class group.
While known tools have solved some of the problems associated with multiuse classrooms, other problems still persist. For instance, even when tables are rearranged to accommodate small group activities, the resulting arrangements often leave small groups visually and audibly exposed to the larger group environment which can have a dampening effect on participation by less confident students. As another instance, even when a whiteboard is dedicated to a small group, some shy students will hesitate to get up and add information to the whiteboard which operates as a barrier to sharing information. As still one other instance, in many cases, while a whiteboard dedicated to a small group will help students in that small group memorialize their thinking, those whiteboards are not easily sharable with a larger class group. As one other instance, during testing and individual activities, students are often exposed within the large group space which can adversely affect a student's concentration and result in lower test scores. As another instance, while a teacher may prefer to move to different locations during a lecture, often times teachers feel a need to have access to their teaching materials at all times and therefore stay near a lectern that supports their materials which has an adverse affect on the results of the teacher's efforts to convey material. Here, one solution has been for teachers to hold their teaching materials (e.g., a book) while moving around but that solution can be physically burdensome on a teacher if used for longer than a few minutes.